BIRDS OF NANTUCKET
AN LYJ?
by Kenneth Turner Blackshaw
Birders often speak of 'LBJ's - Little Brown Jobs, a sometimes endearing term for all the sparrows and their kin we have to identify. Identifying LBJs can separate serious birders from those of us who only like birds that have a little pizzazz.

I must confess, I'm writing this column at the behest of a non-birding fan who faithfully proofs and nit-picks my column every week. So in the spirit of Halloween here is his favorite bird - the Tweety Bird. I'm calling it an LYJ - a Little Yellow Job!

Tweety's call is one of the first I learned as a child - "I tawt I taw a puddy tat!" And it still rings true in my ears. Actually I'd call that phrase more of a contact note. I recall Tweety's full song to be, "I'm a sweet little bird in a gilded cage. Tweety's my name but I don't know my age!" Another of his vocalizations is in the spirit of Jack Webb and Dragnet. "This is the city. 3 million people, 300,000 cats. I'm a bird. I live in a cage. My name - Tweety."

Strangely enough, although Tweety doesn't know his age, we do know it. He's just one year younger than I. Warner Brothers artist Bob Clampett created him back in 1942, and like so many birds, he had a different name at first, "Orson." Not only did he have a different name, he was also PINK not yellow. The color had to be changed because moviegoers complained that he appeared naked!

Tweety's first adversary was not Sylvester the cat. Instead he had to contend with two felines, named Babbitt and Catstello, who were patterned after dear old Bud Abbott and Lou Costello of 'Who's on First?' fame. The title of the movie, "A Tale of Two Kitties." It took a subsequent artist Friz Freleng to pair Tweety with his life-long adversary, the black and white, lisping Sylvester. That first cartoon from 1947 won Warner Brothers their first cartoon Oscar. Tweety was little more than a hatch-year bird and he was already a star.

Things just kept getting better though. Mel Blanc, who provided Tweety's voice, recorded a hit song in 1951 "I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat!" Tweety has become part of America's cultural literacy. We know Tweety Bird kind of like we know the Red Sox play in Boston. But do you really know Tweety?

Tweety is small, very yellow, orange legs, big orange feet, and a huge head that is bigger than his body. He has lovely blue eyes with long lashes. Tweety's strange shape makes you think he was on steroids long before it was fashionable.

People who know birds and cartoons have identified Tweety as an American Singer Canary, two thirds Roller Canary and one third Border Canary. All our domestic canaries relate back to a finch from yes, the Canary Islands, Serinus canaria. Interestingly the Canary Islands weren't named for these birds at all. There were fierce wild dogs there and 'Canary' comes from the Latin word for dog.

When I was growing up we always had one of these lovely yellow canaries singing in its cage in our home on Chestnut Street. Singing in canaries is sexlinked. Only males do it. Since Tweety often sings, he must indeed be a 'he.'

Did Tweety ever make it to Nantucket? He sure did. He made all my early birding 'year lists' because he was often the subject of the wonderful cartoons played before the main features at the Dreamland Theater. But his visits to our island were always too brief. He never nested or showed up on a Christmas Bird Count. For that matter, Tweety seems to be a bit of a 'one-off' creature. I've never seen another like him so the gene pool is dreadfully small - no mating, no eggs.

But Tweety does appear to have a close relative nonetheless - Woodstock, Snoopy's friend in Charles Schultz's wonderful Peanuts comic strip. He is considerably younger, not appearing until 1967. Schultz later commented that Woodstock was actually named for the rock festival in Woodstock, NY.

Tweety's popularity is still vast. With cable TV and the cartoon channel you can see him almost every day. He was the subject of a U.S. Postal Service commemorative stamp in 1998 that was the year's top-selling stamp. On the web, one can stumble on "Tweety World" where you can buy among other things, 'Chia Tweety,' a little Tweety head that will sprout green 'hair' to cover his little yellow bald pate.

My friend and our sports editor, Steve Sheppard, commented he'd heard a rumor that Tweety had a 'canarial' disease called 'chirpies' and it was 'untweetable.' Perhaps that rumor started when someone saw Tweety with green hair. Anyway, you all have a happy Halloween and keep an eye out for LYJs. Remember to thank Warner Brothers for creating

this entry for your cartoon bird list. I

George C. West creates illustrations for these articles. If you enjoy 'social' birding, join the Nantucket Bird Club at 8 a.m. Sundays in front of Nantucket High School for a two to three hour birding trip. Call 228-1693 for more information. To hear about rare birds, or to leave a bird report call the Massachusetts Audubon hot line at 1-781-259-8805. Ask Ken a question at: kenandcindy1@comcast.net.